Bengaluru :

An air ambulance was used for the first time in Bengaluru for an intra-city organ transplant on Thursday. The heart of a 45-year-old woman in Apollo Hospital on Bannerghatta Road , was flown into MS Ramaiah Narayana Heart Centre in Mattikere in just seven minutes. Even with a green corridor, transporting the heart by road would have taken at least 30 minutes.

The recipient of the heart was a 51-year-old woman patient from Andhra Pradesh, in the city for treatment. Doctors advised the heart transplant for her as a last resort.

The donor, a native of Ramanagara district, had been on ventilator at another private hospital since February 19, before she was admitted to Apollo on Wednesday. After doctors at Apollo declared her brain dead on Thursday, her husband and her son, agreed to donate her organs.

While the other organs – kidney, liver, pancreas and cornea – were donated to patients at Apollo Hospitals, it was only the heart that was given to a recipient at another healthcare institute.

“Normally, when the transplant is done within an hour of harvesting the organ, the outcome is expected to be better,” said Dr Nagamalesh UM, senior cardiologist, MS Ramaiah Narayana Health Centre.

“I think this is the first time an organ has been airlifted and transported from one hospital to another in the same city,” said Captain Arun Sharma, managing director, Aviators Air Rescue, which provided the helicopter for the transport. A source from Aviators Air Rescue said that the cost of transporting the organ within the city came up to around Rs 85,000.

The company has deployed three helicopters for the southern region, which have flown more than 150 hours till date.

Patient transferred from Hubballi to Bengaluru in 100 minutes